How to Tell a Compelling Brand Story
A cohesive narrative that weaves together the facts and emotions is a powerful tool
Customers and audiences have caught on.
Long gone are the days when businesses only needed to demonstrate their products’ worth, settle on the right price, and showcase all that with billboards and fliers.
The current clientele now expects far more from their companies. Be it sustainability or worker welfare.
Said clientele also cares about how that message is delivered. And the best way to avoid a “Live for Now” moment is to tell your message through brand storytelling.
But before we learn how you can make brand storytelling work for your business, let’s dive into what it is first.
Brand Storytelling and You
Authenticity. That is what we’re after, and brand storytelling is how we’ll get it.
At its core, brand storytelling is audience engagement through narrative techniques.
Instead of store displays, TV ads, or direct mail, the goal is to connect with your customers personally.
Rather than being a business-to-consumer transaction, brand storytelling aims for a human-to-human level of relationship.
Once done right, brand storytelling leads to a customer base that will not only consistently do business with you, but they will also feel aligned with your values and root for your success.
So now that we know the whats and whys, let’s learn how we’ll get there.
Need-To-Knows, Great-To-Haves
Here are the five essential guides to effective brand storytelling.
1) Why Do You Exist?
Every business starts for a reason, including yours.
Think back to that very moment when a light bulb lit up in your head.
Was it to provide access to essential goods or services for notoriously underserved areas in your city? Or were you the first to see the next big thing and run with it?
Here’s an example from Okta:
Whichever it was, that’s your business’ origin story. And it’s the starting point from where you’ll craft your distinct form of brand storytelling.
2) Everyone Is Special
Effective communication is the difference between companies that stand out and those that don’t.
Your business could be THE unique enterprise in years, but if you don’t lean on that, its distinctiveness might as well don’t exist.
Do you make your baby socks out of 100% sustainable, chemical-free, and ethically sourced wool?
First, that’s superb.
Second, that should be the first thing your audience knows about your business.
“Doing the right thing” is no longer a novelty nor a gimmick in business.
When you show that your business is more than just profits, not only will your audience respond well to that, you will also have successfully humanized your brand.
3) The People-Speak
Even if your business model is B2B, it’s still ideal to move beyond the boiler-plate commercial speak of days past.
With attention spans dwindling due to endless streams of content, your company needs to break through the noise.
And the best way is to give your brand a distinctive voice.
Think of your business as a living human being instead of a faceless entity.
You can create company mascots to increase brand recall.
Here we have Mr. Clunkington and Puffy Fury as our company mascots.
But personality can also shine just through writing. Think of Apple’s knowledgeable, measured tone or Wendy’s wit and cheekiness.
And personality is crucial for telling your company’s story to a broad audience.
4) Your Audience and You
The ultimate goal of brand storytelling is to connect with your audience deeper than traditional advertising.
It’s through humanizing your brand that we facilitate that connection.
But we only achieve it by creating relatability between your customers and business.
Your brand storytelling must be straightforward in your origins, ideals, and heritage. Such clarity will not just resonate with your target audience.
It will also compel them to take part in your company’s narrative, and the most straightforward way is through buying your goods and services.
5) Talk of the Town
Now that you’ve invested your audience in your brand and its story, it’s time to spread the good news.
Word-of-mouth marketing is the holy grail for any company. And brand storytelling is one of the most surefire ways to achieve it.
When you invest your customers in your business’ success, you must keep them engaged.
Start conversations in social media, ask for feedback, hold audience polls. Always respond to their needs and desires.
You might as well invest in a variety of content strategies, like video marketing to spread your words out and expand your reach.
Leave them with a sense of membership in your company’s journey, and your audience will become your greatest champions.
Brand storytelling may seem daunting, but at its core, it’s the practice of understanding your business together with your audience.
Once you’ve worked it out, the next step is to get your message out there.
That’s where we here at Breadnbeyond come in. With experience in making bespoke explainer videos since 2009, you can be sure that you’re giving your brand story its best foot forward.
Read more: Tell Brand Stories With Explainer Videos
What are some of the most memorable brands you know? Let us know in the comments below!
